


this family needs medicine

by allieteration



Category: The Haunting of Hill House (TV 2018), The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson
Genre: Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Other, References to Drugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-27 22:17:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16711069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allieteration/pseuds/allieteration
Summary: a screenplay based around the track “medicine” by daughter that follows a phone conversation between siblings nell and luke crain in luke’s early days of the beast of addiction.





	this family needs medicine

**Author's Note:**

> the haunting of hill house is a netflix original series that i have steadily grown to become infatuated with since its release. what i have taken away from the production is that it is not the ghosts and spirits that are the utmost frightening of the storyline, but instead, the grief that family can uniquely impose upon one another. the dynamic between nell and luke and their individual characterizations, and my everlasting love for the band daughter and their music have influenced me to write this short, but sweet drabble on luke’s heroin addiction.  
> with that being said, i must invoke a trigger warning to anybody who might read this; i describe the turmoil of a drug addict and the act of using substances below.  
> in any event, i hope that you find the goodness in your heart to forgive luke. “it’s just medicine”, after all.

FADE IN:

INT. — NELL CRAIN’S APARTMENT

NELL is swathed beneath her duvet in her studio apartment, lace drapery drawn together like velvet theatre curtains to hush the bustling babel of highway traffic against the moonshine. She kneads her insomniac hazel eyes, and sifts through the parchment of a borrowed novel that hasn’t captivated her yet when her cell phone chimes with a ringtone. Her brow furrows at the caller ID, stomach wrought with apprehensiveness. Something is wrong. She composes herself and answers with a levelheaded demeanor, albeit with bated breath.

NELL

Luke?

There is soft whimpering from the opposite line—whimpering that prompts reminiscence of childhood and a cowering LUKE when what felt like whenever the wind gusted too forcefully to their siblings. To NELL, she understood. The world was bigger for the twins. It always had been.

LUKE

I-I’m sorry to b-bother you, Nellie…I know it’s late.

NELL

Don’t apologize. I was wondering why I had woken up before you called anyway. Twin Thing.

LUKE stifled a chuckle to himself. The “Twin Thing” was a fathomless melody they had been repeating like a mockingbird for years.

LUKE

Right. _Twin Thing._

NELL

Are you okay?

LUKE

No, Nell, I’m…I haven’t been well.

NELL

What do you mean?

LUKE suddenly sprouted with an unparalleled wrathfulness like a Venus Fly Trap capturing its prey.

LUKE

It’s…well, it’s everything, Nellie. It’s Mom. It’s not knowing Dad anymore, if we ever did. It’s Hill House. It’s fucking Steve and Shirley telling me how I should or shouldn’t live. It’s Theo fucking psychoanalyzing me. It’s me being _so fucking scared_ to let you down.

NELL

Slow down. You’re—look, you’re not letting me down. I have to ask…are-are you drunk?

LUKE

Something like that.

NELL

Wh-well, _what_?

A beat passed, and NELL shook her head at her conclusion. _Again._ This was becoming a habit, and it wasn’t a habit she could loop Steve or Shirley or Theo into. Not yet. They would lacerate him like a pride of lions, nitpicking at him until he was compelled to abuse drugs on another occasion. NELL could handle it. She could, and she would.

NELL

You’re high. Again, Luke?

LUKE

I couldn’t help it. I _couldn’t_.

NELL

It’s okay. We’re okay. Listen, I want you to come stay with me for a day or two. We can figure this out, like we used to. _Come home_ , Luke.

LUKE

I-I can’t. Not anymore. Not after everything I’ve done.

NELL

How many times have you used?

LUKE

Enough.

NELL

Okay.

LUKE scoffed at her reply.  He expected more, he thought.  Or perhaps he didn’t because it was NELL.

LUKE

“Okay”?

NELL

I’m not sure what kind of reaction this warrants.

LUKE

I don’t know either. I would expect Steve or Shirl or Theo to yell, but…not you. Never you, Nellie.

NELL

Do you remember when we were little, and all you talked about was wanting to help people help people when you grew up? How Aunt Janet would scold you and say that you weren’t making any sense?

LUKE

That feels like lifetimes ago.

NELL

But it’s not.

LUKE

I remember Aunt Janet trying to convince me to pursue medicine. _‘This family needs medicine, Luke,’_ she would tell me. If only she knew at the time what she said. If only she knew at the time that it was Theo that would become the doctor; me, a fucking junkie.

NELL

You can still help people help people. If you get into rehab, get clean—you can counsel people like you, and they can counsel people like them because of you. No impact goes unnoticed.

LUKE coughed out a sob, throat asphyxiating with shamefulness and indignity. NELL felt her heart fracture once, then again with the decrescendo of his teardrops plummeting down and smacking against the concrete beneath his soles. He was settled on a wooden park bench, head cradled in his palms.

LUKE

 _Fuck._ Jesus, I can’t-I can’t keep doing this.

NELL

You can start over, Luke. Slate, wiped clean. I can come get you.

LUKE

I-I can’t do it, Nellie. I’m sorry. You have to know how sorry I am.

NELL

Luke—

LUKE

Goodbye, Nell.

CUT TO:

EXT. UNKNOWN CITY PARK

The call dropped, and LUKE scavenged around in his denim pocket for the balloon of heroin he had purchased minutes before his conversation with his sister. He flicked his lighter on beneath a rusted silver spoon, and injected a used needle into the cooked substance.  He could hear the voices of his siblings chastising him, and his father droning on about “protecting him”; _“I did what I had to do, son.”_  He held his breath in anticipation as he punctured his vein and plunged the drug into his system.  A tear droplet tumbled down his cheek as he reclined in his seat, eyelids shut tight.

LUKE

Just… _forgive me_ , please.

Not the first, but not the last either.

** END **


End file.
